Soon enough, we'll have big-data-trained, machine-learning neural networks constantly analysing our credit rating, evaluating our work performance, ranking us in job and school applications, determining if we're fit to have children, and so on.

Ironically, the engineers devising these algorithms will have no real understanding of how they work, only that they meet some abstract performance criteria.

Mark my words: There's going to be lots and lots of incomprehensible and ridiculous "Computer Says No" in coming decades, when the Excel spreadsheet people "optimise" by offloading all bureaucracy and service jobs on to opaque, "authoritative" AIs.

Soon enough, we'll have big-data-trained, machine-learning neural networks constantly analysing our credit rating, evaluating our work performance, ranking us in job and school applications, determining if we're fit to have children, and so on.

Ironically, the engineers devising these algorithms will have no real understanding of how they work, only that they meet some abstract performance criteria.

Mark my words: There's going to be lots and lots of incomprehensible and ridiculous "Computer Says No" in coming decades, when the Excel spreadsheet people "optimise" by offloading all bureaucracy and service jobs on to opaque, "authoritative" AIs.

Some British politicians suffer from an imperial reflex, however. For them, Britain lies at the centre of the world. We only have to state our aims and other countries will be generous enough to help us achieve them.

The British have never really accepted the fact that their Empire is gone and that they are now just another European nation, neither particularly rich nor powerful when compared to France and Germany.

True, Britain does outperform its Western European neighbours on several fronts: it is a uniquely miserable, unjust and unequal place thanks to the radical neoliberal experiment of the past 40 years.

Modern Britain is a corrupt, undemocratic financial centre in the Eurozone, burdened with an impoverished, unhappy, overtaxed and unneeded surplus population. And now they're leaving the Eurozone.

The only glimmer of light I can see in this Brexit business is that the consequences are likely to be so bad that it may effect some kind of political change for the better in the long run.

Some British politicians suffer from an imperial reflex, however. For them, Britain lies at the centre of the world. We only have to state our aims and other countries will be generous enough to help us achieve them.

The British have never really accepted the fact that their Empire is gone and that they are now just another European nation, neither particularly rich nor powerful when compared to France and Germany.

True, Britain does outperform its Western European neighbours on several fronts: it is a uniquely miserable, unjust and unequal place thanks to the radical neoliberal experiment of the past 40 years.

Modern Britain is a corrupt, undemocratic financial centre in the Eurozone, burdened with an impoverished, unhappy, overtaxed and unneeded surplus population. And now they're leaving the Eurozone.

The only glimmer of light I can see in this Brexit business is that the consequences are likely to be so bad that it may effect some kind of political change for the better in the long run.

Academia was, [Graeber] muses, once a haven for oddballs – it was one of the reasons he went into it. “It was a place of refuge. Not any more. Now, if you can’t act a little like a professional executive, you can kiss goodbye to the idea of an academic career.”

Why is that so terrible?

“It means we’re taking a very large percentage of the greatest creative talent in our society and telling them to go to hell … The eccentrics have been drummed out of all institutions.”

]]>

What do we live for?

Academia was, [Graeber] muses, once a haven for oddballs – it was one of the reasons he went into it. “It was a place of refuge. Not any more. Now, if you can’t act a little like a professional executive, you can kiss goodbye to the idea of an academic career.”

Why is that so terrible?

“It means we’re taking a very large percentage of the greatest creative talent in our society and telling them to go to hell … The eccentrics have been drummed out of all institutions.”

]]>Mon, 10 Jul 2017 13:01 GMTSveinbjörn ÞórðarsonA scholar must have other interestshttps://sveinbjorn.org/news/2017-07-08-12-59-51/A-scholar-must-have-other-interests.html
https://sveinbjorn.org/news/2017-07-08-12-59-51/A-scholar-must-have-other-interests.html#commentshttps://sveinbjorn.org/news/2017-07-08-12-59-51/A-scholar-must-have-other-interests.html/feed/0https://sveinbjorn.org/news/2017-07-08-12-59-51/A-scholar-must-have-other-interests.htmlSveinbjorn ThordarsonA scholar, even for the sake of his scholarship, as well as for that of his life, must have other interests. Scholarship which is confined to one rut becomes antiquarianism: it needs a context, and the possibility of comparison, and the invigorating infusion of reality, and life. But then, of course, there is the opposite danger of dilettantism, the occupational hazard of the journalist. I think that one needs to be a disciplined specialist in one area in order to have a corrective standard outside that area—and meanwhile to have interests outside that area in order to preserve one’s balance and keep intellectually alive. — Hugh Trevor-Roper]]>A scholar, even for the sake of his scholarship, as well as for that of his life, must have other interests. Scholarship which is confined to one rut becomes antiquarianism: it needs a context, and the possibility of comparison, and the invigorating infusion of reality, and life. But then, of course, there is the opposite danger of dilettantism, the occupational hazard of the journalist. I think that one needs to be a disciplined specialist in one area in order to have a corrective standard outside that area—and meanwhile to have interests outside that area in order to preserve one’s balance and keep intellectually alive. — Hugh Trevor-Roper]]>Sat, 08 Jul 2017 12:59 GMTSveinbjörn ÞórðarsonGreiðslukerfið sem pólitískt vopnhttps://sveinbjorn.org/news/2017-06-22-19-46-21/Greidslukerfid-sem-politiskt-vopn.html
https://sveinbjorn.org/news/2017-06-22-19-46-21/Greidslukerfid-sem-politiskt-vopn.html#commentshttps://sveinbjorn.org/news/2017-06-22-19-46-21/Greidslukerfid-sem-politiskt-vopn.html/feed/0https://sveinbjorn.org/news/2017-06-22-19-46-21/Greidslukerfid-sem-politiskt-vopn.htmlSveinbjorn ThordarsonÞað er eflaust blautur draumur Benedikts og ættmenna hans að útrýma reiðufé og rukka landsmenn 50 kall per færslu. En eins ógeðslegt og þetta Borgunarmál er allt saman, þá eru hugmyndir um að útrýma reiðufé stórhættulegar og af hinu illa, faktískt hoppandi ruglaðar.

]]>Thu, 22 Jun 2017 18:52 GMTSveinbjörn ÞórðarsonIf I were an optimist...https://sveinbjorn.org/news/2017-05-29-10-34-43/If-I-were-an-optimist....html
https://sveinbjorn.org/news/2017-05-29-10-34-43/If-I-were-an-optimist....html#commentshttps://sveinbjorn.org/news/2017-05-29-10-34-43/If-I-were-an-optimist....html/feed/0https://sveinbjorn.org/news/2017-05-29-10-34-43/If-I-were-an-optimist....htmlSveinbjorn ThordarsonIf I were an optimist, I'd say that this heralds a new age where Europe moves away from the Anglo partnership towards a more humane and reasonable form of social democratic capitalism, leaving the Anglos to stew in their own corrosive neoliberal clusterfuck. But then again, I'm not an optimist.]]>If I were an optimist, I'd say that this heralds a new age where Europe moves away from the Anglo partnership towards a more humane and reasonable form of social democratic capitalism, leaving the Anglos to stew in their own corrosive neoliberal clusterfuck. But then again, I'm not an optimist.]]>Mon, 29 May 2017 10:34 GMTSveinbjörn Þórðarson